WYAAP Summer Camp 2010 Summer Camp Experience by Kara Aguilar

The next WYAAP summer camp will be held at Binmaley, Pangasinan”. I saw this on the WYAAP website. I then was excited at that moment. My friends and I were talking about joining the WYAAP summer camp. This was weeks after Renelyn Tan spoke in our school about the World Youth Alliance organization. We were inspired by what she presented. I knew I wanted to do the camp and besides, it was a ticket for me to take a break from Iloilo city and to enjoy the city life of Manila and the serenity of the Binmaley beach in Pangasinan.

Next thing I knew, five of my friends including I were in Pangasinan. Packing our stuff we were so excited. And after a few more days, we were now headed to Manila. We arrived in Manilaa little earlier in May since the training camp was at the 17th. We got to see a little bit of Manila.

On the seventeenth, we woke up early to go straight to the WYAAP house at Quezon city. The people inside were so friendly and hospitable. Then we rode the van and off we were to Pangasinan.

The beach was nice and the place was fantastic. We fell in love with the place. Then the summer camp officially began. We started with discussions which were kind of hard for us but we managed we also were divided into groups for breakout sessions. I loved the breakout sessions because we got to express our thought and we also gained deeper understandings of the topics.

All in all, there are three things I learned. First was a deeper understanding of things. Before, I just knew a little about human dignity, freedom, solidarity, culture and a lot more. But after all the training, I gained a greater understanding of these examples, I know that the human dignity is intrinsic, inviolable and universal. Also, human dignity is intrinsic since our conception to the time we die. I have learned loads more and I have realized the deeper understanding of all these topics.

I also learned how to make new friends typically, I am a shy person and it is not easy to interact with people. But it was different now. It was not easy for me to make new friends. I am very appreciative of them because we had camaraderie during answering time. I also got the chance to meet the most awesome batch of facilitators. They really helped me with coping with answering questions and group dynamics.

Lastly, I learned more about myself and others. I learned that we are all are interrelated and the we need to respect each other’s dignity and the worth of each of us.

To sum it all up, the summer camp was a blast! I got to learn more about myself, the people around me and the human dignity of each and everyone, I had a lot of fun and it sure was one way to spend a summer productively.